Health department presents mostly steady budget; opioid settlement, youth grant used to fund local nonprofits

At a joint meeting of the Board of Finance, Health and Human Services and the NAZ liaison committee, health department staff presented a fiscal-year budget showing a slight overall decrease of 0.04% and described how opioid settlement funds and a state Youth Services Bureau grant will be used to support local nonprofits and programs.

The budget changes matter because they preserve current service levels while shifting some costs from town dollars to grant funding and insurance billing. Staff described specific allocations from opioid settlement funds, changes to a Silver Hill assessment program as it begins billing insurance, and a request to replenish the town’s general assistance fund.

Jen, a health department staff member, told the committee that “none of the requests were made any smaller” and that program funding would be reallocated to be “more efficiently used” through a smaller set of subgrants. She said the town will direct opioid settlement money to three local providers: $10,000 to Kids in Crisis, $8,000 to New Haven Cares and $25,000 to the assessment program at Silver Hill. Jen also described the Youth Services Bureau (YSB) grant as a state program and said the department selected three…